My Favorites of 2016!

Art, Music and Books...throw in some top quality tea and I am a happy gal. :)

Here are some of my favorite things from 2016:

"Prince of Wales Tea" by Twinings

This is my all time favorite tea. It is slightly sweet and smells divine. All around great black tea.

"Tell Me I'm Pretty" by Cage the Elephant

This album got a LOT of play time on my Ipod this year. I got to see them in concert too and it was amazing. Check out the songs "Mess Around" and "Trouble".

"Bose Quiet Comfort Headphones"

I got these beauties for Christmas and wow! Wireless and comfortable. They block out all sound except for what is playing and the sound quality is excellent. 

"Act Like It" by Lucy Parker

I loved this book! So funny and sweet. Fairly clean too which I like in a romance book. It is only 99 cents right now on Amazon!

"Throne of Glass Series" by Sarah J. Maas

This series is so much fun. The 5th book "Empire of Storms" came out this year along with the second book in her "Court of Thorn and Roses" series. They are both awesome. Thorn and Roses series is more geared towards adults as it has some steamier love scenes.  Sarah's writing is so engaging and she has a way of making you escape reality with her. If you are a fan of fantasy books with some romance thrown in and bad-ass heroines, you will love these.

"A Moon Shaped Pool" by Radiohead

This band has everything that is good about music. Transports you and creates a whole world of sound to explore. I absolutely love their newest album. "True Love Waits" might be my one of my favorite love song ever. Achingly beautiful.

"It Ends With Us" by Colleen Hoover

Colleen is one of my favorite authors. Her sense of humor is off the charts funny and she uses lots of music references in her books too (which I love). Her books will make you laugh and cry and fall in love with the characters. She is amazing!

"Dopamine" by BORNS"

This is a new artist that I got to see play live this year. Don't let the album cover scare you...this music is downright beautiful (and clean). "Electric Love", "Past Lives" and "10,000 Emerald Pools" are my favorite songs but this whole album is stellar.

"Walls" by Kings of Leon

The title song to this album will make you cry. Another awesome album from one of my favorite bands. I am hoping to see them next year (for the second time) if they tour near me.

"The Lunar Chronicles" by Marissa Meyer

These were a really fun read. The final book in this YA series came out this year and wrapped up the stories really well. They are a spin off on classic fairy tales (Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Snow White) with a fantasy/futuristic cyber twist.

"Amazon Echo Dot"

My husband Mark installed WiFi enabled plug ins and switches to the whole house this year, including my studio which sports about 20 different light fixtures. So needless to say it is a total thrill to be able to say "Alexa Turn on All Art Lights" and have my studio come to life! It is such a time saver. Not to mention all the other fun features.

And lastly, I wanted to share this art course I will be following in 2017 by one of my favorite artists, Tamara Laporte of Willowing Arts. Lifebook 2017 has some amazing artists participating and I can't wait to see what they have in store!

Swallowtail Butterfly - Acrylic Painting Tutorial Videos #LoveSummerArt

Ever have one of those days when nothing seems to want to happen easily? Even the simplest tasks seem like the universe has conspired to complicate?  Welcome to my world!!  OK, granted, I could have saved some of the frustration I am about to spill if I had planned ahead a little bit. But in my defense, I had been finishing the remodel of my studio and I had not had time to film and edit my newest video until the last minute.  It was perfect storm of procrastination and frustration.

It really is a miracle the videos were released on time. I just barely finished my studio renovation the week before the July 17th-20th deadline for the #LoveSummerArt event and I purchased a new computer to make the editing go faster. Yeah right, faster, well my fancy, new, super-speedy computer did not come with Wifi, or an SD card reader, or the CD drive plugged in, or the proper monitor cords, or speakers, you get the idea! It was a lesson in patience for sure.  Thank the Lord I have 3 computer savvy men at my disposal or I might have had a meltdown.  So needless to say, it took almost all week just to get the proper computer parts ordered and functioning.

So, as it turned out, my editing had to be done the day before the release.  Oh, and did I mention I decided to do a first ever fine art tutorial?? No? Well, instead of a regular 30 min. or hour long tutorial, I had 5 hours of recorded video to edit.  5 bleeping hours!  Oh, and did I also mention that my camcorder decided to go on super hi-def mode and filled my 2G SD card every 30 min. or so? So that I had to stop recording and upload it (to my old laptop because, of course, my new SD card reader was not in yet, which meant that once I was ready to edit I had to transfer all 10 sections of video over to my new computer). Are you exhausted just reading this. I am! Ok, I am done griping. I won't even mention the editing because, well, just don't get me started.

So here you go. I hope it meets muster. And if the butterfly drawing video has my left hand on the right side, well, sorry but we will just have to deal with it. Try watching it in the mirror. ;)

And the Speed Version. If only I could paint this fast!

"Arkansas Beauty" Original Acrylic Painting by Angela Anderson

This was a special commissioned painting for Dan Fields of Fayetteville, AR.  He is adding art by Arkansas artists to his office. I was honored to be among the chosen artists.

I took pictures of my progress as I painted it. I thought it might be interesting to show the process of layering that I do on my paintings.  The first stages are always very awkward looking and I use them to make changes in composition.

 Initial Sketch

 First layer of paint. Blocking in shapes and background colors.

 Second layer. Adding color and details to butterflies. Adding highlights to flowers and leaves. I also changed the shape of the upper butterfly to a single wing (I had a better photo) and removed some buds and leaves that were cluttering the composition.

 Third layer. More highlights on flowers and defining leaves. Moved some buds around a bit and added some new elements to balance things.

 Fourth layer. Shading the flowers and leaves. Adding more color to butterflies.

 Fifth layer. More defining on flowers and butterflies. 

 Sixth layer. Adding details to blue butterfly.

 Seventh layer. Finished details on blue butterfly. 

 Eighth layer. Adding details to orange butterfly and a few more highlights on flowers.

Ninth layer. Another brighter layer of color on the orange butterfly.

Finished painting. Adjusted some colors on the orange butterfly.

Dog Portrait Acrylic Paintings - Kids Art Class

We couldn't let the cats have all the attention, so by popular demand, here are the dog portraits we painted last week in my kids art class.  I have to say, it was one of the more challenging projects we have attempted because of the sheer variety in dog breeds (different face shapes, ear shapes, fur textures, etc).  Despite the challenges, I think the kids did a great job.